Yesterday, I attended Sneaker Con New York, a huge convention that is all about shoes of all types. Now one would think that this was probably a small event but would be wrong to believe so. There were so many people that I had to wait outside the Jacob Javit Center for about an hour before I was able to get in because of overcrowding. The line outside spanned about a half mile down West 40^th Street. What made the wait outside even worse was that it was cold and raining. As bad as the wait outside was, I could confidently say that once I was inside, the experience was the complete opposite.

When I got in, I was greeted by the roaring noise of fellow sneaker-heads (term used for people who have a passion for shoes) buying and selling shoes and related accessories. As I walked around, I was able to see all the interesting booths created by vendors and displays of shoes that were not available for sale but rather strictly to be shown off.

One thing that truly struck me as interesting was all the custom art that was there. Some of the things I saw were shoes that were once completely white, painted on to portray somewhat of a skin print pattern and on the grey part on the upper, there is a few bolts of lightning. Another thing that I saw that was not related to shoes at all were these two paintings that were hanging on the racks of clothing that a vender was selling. I spoke to Myles, the artist who made these and he told me that the company was called Get A Real Dream. Unfortunately, he was really busy and I was unable to ask him a ton of questions about his work but I did really enjoy these pieces.

All in all, SneakerCon was all I hoped for and more. The high energy money-flowing atmosphere and just being surrounded by all kinds of shoes and artwork I have never seen before is the definition of my sanctuary.